Globalization, demographic changes, and environmental challenges put a strong pressure on European manufacturing industry and increase demands on resource efficiency, sustainable manufacturing, innovative products and individualized products. Today, Swedish manufacturing in mature traditional sectors is increasingly migrating to low-wage countries such as China and India. There is a strong need for the manufacturing industry in Sweden to enhance the ability to develop and manufacture products competitively. One way could be through an increased level of automation and increased use of industrial robotics. However, robot automation investments are in many cases, regarded as too expensive and too technically advanced, especially within small and medium sized enterprises. The objective of this paper is to investigate requirements as well as possible solutions for efficient use of robot automation in the Swedish manufacturing industry. Results from two research projects are presented. In the first project, requirements on automation solutions within small and medium sized manufacturing companies have been analyzed. The second project has investigated and developed possible solutions for increased reconfigurability of robotic systems enabling production of different products and simple configuration to handle future product variants without large additional investments.